Documentaries - By Category
Documentary Film 101
Welcome to the wonderful and fascinating world of documentary films! Nonfiction films provide you with unlimited access to the whole wide world around you. No subject is too obscure, no mountain too high to deter a determined documentary film director from exploring it and presenting it to you. Here, you'll discover the basics about the production elements, aesthetics and history of documentary film.
Reviews - A to Z Index of Documentary Reviews
Your source for information about documentary films, what they are about and whether they are worth seeing. You'll find contemporary and classical documentary films covered here.
Available on DVD
Reviews of recent and classic documentary films that have been released on DVD, with information about the extras.
Top Picks and Awards
What's your pleasure? Here are lists of Oscar winners and my favorite documentary films. These documentary films deserve to be watched more than once.
Popular Documentary Subjects
If there is a subject that interests you, there is probably a documentary film about it. People, places, events past and present, culture and sports, science and the environment are all documentary film subjects. You'll enjoy the sweep of documentary film subjects categorized here.
Featured Filmmakers
Documentary films are most often the product of one person's vision and persistence, and that person is the director. Personal styles and agendas differ vastly. Read here about some of the most innovative and influential documentary filmmakers and their work.
Documentary Film Styles
Documentary Film styles range from use of only original archival footage in compilation films to dramatic reenactments that illustrate events for which no archival footage exists. Here you'll read about the elements of style that determine a documentary film's credibility and influence its impact.
Offshoots
Not all films based on true events and stories are truthful. Documentary filmmakers show and tell the truth, but they use dramatic editing and other effects to sway audiences. Similarly, narrative film directors may use archival footage to lend credibility to their stories. Here are some ways in which the lines between truth and fiction become blurred. You might want to take note of crossover styles and techniques while you're watching documentaries or narrative films.
Documentary Film Venues
Documentary film represents a special niche in filmdom, and although that niche is becoming more popular and powerful, some documentary films are hard to find. Blockbusters like Sicko and Oscar winners like An Inconvenient Truth are screened in multiplexes. But it may take some effort to find more obscure--but equally worthwhile--documentary films. What are the best, most likely venues for finding the widest variety of documentaries? Read on.
Documentary Film Festivals
Documentary Film Festivals screen hundreds of films each year and provide unparalleled opportunities to see a wide range of films and videos, and congregate with filmmakers and critics. Each documentary film festival has its own mission and ambience. Here, you will find information on the world's leading, largest and most dynamic documentary film festivals.
Documentary Film Events
Ever-growing interest in documentary films gives rise to one-time and recurring symposia and other special events that offer documentary filmmakers and nonfiction film fans opportunity to learn and network Check here often for upcoming events that might be of interest and/or helpful to you.
Glossary
A glossary of terms used in the making and analyzing of documentary films.